in which the lesser of two evils may still be pretty evil

[subtly_artistic]

Bella didn't mean to take so long about eating her dinner. It's just that this book is really interesting. Supplemental history reading, recommended by the professor, by a different author than did their textbook, one who can really write, she'll have to find the rest of his work - and now she's one of six students left in the dining hall and it's closing. Four of them are a group of dwarves who she can only assume live in the dwarf housing; individual dwarves sometimes find their way into Harlowe and there is even one in Thatcher, but not a bunch of them. The other one's a mermaid.

Bella doesn't think the mermaid lives in Thatcher, which makes it Harlowe, but Thatcher's on the way to Harlowe from here.

She knows not to go swimming with her and this will have to do.

She goes up to the mermaid.

"Excuse me. I try not to walk around outside by myself. Are you heading towards Thatcher? Harlowe's right past it," she adds.

Comments

[subtly_artistic]

"Uh, full first name is Isabella, if you go looking for me in any official record."

[pythbox]

"You humans and your names," says Jala, shaking her head and smiling.

[subtly_artistic]

"Why, how do yours work?"

[pythbox]

"Not that different, I guess. It's mostly the 'last names' thing that tangles my fins."

[subtly_artistic]

"You don't have them, or you have something different?"

[pythbox]

"Don't have them."

[subtly_artistic]

"That is simpler. Especially if you live in smaller groups or have more names to choose from than we do. There's at least one other Isabella at this school; I've heard somebody shouting for her and I didn't know them."

[pythbox]

"Yeah, I've never met another Jala," she says, shaking her head.

[subtly_artistic]

"No name collisions, sounds convenient."

[pythbox]

"I guess! I've never thought about it. Is that why humans do those complicated things, did you just run out of names?"

[subtly_artistic]

"That's not the only reason we have last names and nicknames, but we do use both for that purpose," Bella says. "Last names are also a family thing, and they're more formal - that's why teachers use them - and nicknames allow for personalization and informality, like how I prefer 'Bella'."

[pythbox]

"What do you mean, a family thing?" she asks interestedly.

[subtly_artistic]

"My last name is Swan because my father's last name is Swan," Bella explains. "When my parents got married, my mother changed her last name to Swan for the same reason. Modern families sometimes do different things with them, but that's the basic idea, around here."

[pythbox]

"Oh," says Jala. "I didn't know that! I thought everyone just made them up like you do with normal names."

[subtly_artistic]

"Nope! If you meet two people with the same last name there's a good chance they're related. Although it can also be a coincidence, it makes it likely enough that you can ask if you want to know."

[pythbox]

"But related through their fathers? Or through... some kind of... marrying... thing?" she hazards.

[subtly_artistic]

"They could be siblings, or first cousins whose fathers are brothers, or second cousins whose paternal grandfathers were brothers, and so on - or one could be the niece or nephew of the other, assuming the right genders and/or pattern of marriages," says Bella. "It's not going to help you figure out anyone else - it's not really designed to be completely informative about that to people who don't know the family, just to connect wives and children to their husbands and fathers."

[pythbox]

"I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it," she says, shaking her head.

[subtly_artistic]

"I think you can get along without knowing all this," says Bella. "It's not a big deal, especially here where people aren't generally present with close family."

[pythbox]

Jala grins. "Oh, good."

[subtly_artistic]

And here's Thatcher. "Thanks for the escort!"

[pythbox]

"Anytime!" says Jala, waving.

[subtly_artistic]

In goes Bella.

[pythbox]

Guess who's baking a pie!

[subtly_artistic]

Is it Celo? Bella bets it's Celo.